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I have to admit I wasn't really expecting to get the job when I applied for it, being in the Jupiler league and especially after third division German side Hannover had rejected me. But I'm not complaining and I certainly wasn't going to turn them down!

The table before I took over. The target of the season is to reach the play-off's, Haarlem haven't played in the Eredivisie since 2013 so it would be some achievement to get them promoted in my first season in charge. The Jupiler league has a relatively complex play-off system, but essentially you have to win three 2 legged knockout ties to go up once you make the play-off's, some of those games could be against sides from the Eredivisie that are looking to avoid relegation. It definitely makes winning the league a massive incentive compared to say the Championship in England, as with it you take the only automatic promotion spot to the top flight, and the play-off's in Holland appear to be a lot more challenging than in England for example.

The club seemed to need a striker, so with the cash that we had I have signed the league's current top scorer who will be arriving in January. I may have potentially paid slightly over the odds, but I haven't had this kind of cash at any club before and thought sod it might as well!

I'm not hugely surprised you managed to land that job, the 2nd tier in Holland has a pretty poor reputation and even 3 divisions down Hannover are a far larger club. Good luck, particularly at figuring out that league which has some weird promotion rules!

A decent first 8 games in charge has seen Haarlem rise to the play-off places as we're now 9th. It's obviously ridiculously open at the moment, a good run of 5 games could see us reach the top 3, whereas a bad run could see us drop back down to 13th/14th.

Jupiler league has this weird system where you qualify for play-off's based on performance in each "period" of the season, with leftover spaces going to teams at the end of the season. It's kind of confusing to explain but does seem to make sense if you're playing in the division.

Elsewhere in the league, 10 points from 6 games isn't great form for a side that wants to reach the play-off's, it's looking very tight at the moment but hopefully we can keep up a decent amount of form for the rest of the season.

yeah the competition for play-off places is ridiculously competitive, then once you get into the play-off's it's even more competitive Whoever goes up via the play-off's definitely deserves their place in the Eredivisie!

Threw everything at them but just couldn't score, ended 0-0 which ends our promotion hopes. Despite not really deserving promotion based on our league finish, still pretty gutted to be a goal away from putting it to ET/penalties!

After a decent 8th place finish we of course qualified for the play-offs, unfortunately falling at the last hurdle in the 3rd round. The squad was relatively decent although could do with a few more quality players and a little more depth. Transfers - I only signed Woudsma and Roar Olstad, as the other players were brought in by the previous manager. Finances - They're not great, we wont be able to offer much in terms of wages to players but generally have a decent amount of money to spend for this division.

There were a few Norwegians in the side, one being versatile full back Andreas Helgesen who was one of the better players at the club, another being first choice goalkeeper Christoffer Larsen. I signed another Norwegian, left back Roar Olstad who is a very good left back for this division. Rolf Heeren was a key central defender as was Ron van de Kerkhof. Erwin Scheurwater did well on loan from Willem II. Gerard Dijkhuizen did decently on the left side of midfield, he could have done better though. Kevin de Man was a key part of central midfield with one of the best pass ratios in the league. Our captain, Robin van Veen was a key part of the season with a decent amount of goals and assists. Jeroen Steegs was our backup striker and did decent from the bench scoring 7 goals in total. Jordy Woudsma didn't score as many goals as he should have, I hope he will score more next season or I will sell him on for profit. Mark Poel was topscorer with 26 goals in 36 games, hopefully he can score as many next season.

pretty irritating but the squad seem to have got complacent, potentially since a play-off place is already secured, but I'd rather win the league outright to avoid having to go through the bloody play-offs again!

Yeah I have to admit I'm not sure what would happen in such a scenario, I'm guessing that it would be pretty much what deltablue said, would put even more pressure on you in the play-off's though - win, you go up, lose, you go down

One of the worst games I've experienced as a manager, we were 1-0 up at one point but Roda JC scored twice in the last 10 minutes to put us out in just the 2nd round of the play-off's. Very frustrating stuff and makes it tempting to pack it in, but with the likelihood of getting an 'I' job relatively low at the moment, I will most likely stay and hope it can be third time lucky next season.

After sadly going out in the 2nd round of the play-off's it's time to evaluate our season. Not much was spent in transfers, our "big" purchase being the signing of winger/striker Artur Murawski. "Flop" signing Jordy Woudsma was sold for 200K (20K profit) to Coventry. The Dutch Cup was a bit crap, we went out to Feyenoord in the 3rd round, although we made some money from being on TV/big stadium etc so not all bad. 4th place in the league was a disappointment considering the fact we were running away with it at the start of the season.

Christoffer Larsen was our first choice goalkeeper, he was actually injured for the return leg in the play-off and I had to play a crap 17 year old which can't have done our chances any good. Our main right back Andreas Helgeson had a pretty decent season. Larsen and Helgesen's compatriot Roar Olstad had a good season at left back. Ron van de Kerkhof had a pretty poor season at center back. Rolf Heeren was slightly better. Luuk Versluis did pretty well on the right side of midfield, 4 goals and 7 assists for him. Gerard Dijkhuizen was okay at left midfield, with 3 goals and 7 assists. Club captain Robin van Veen did well in the middle, 8 goals and 2 assists for him and a decent pass ratio. Fabio Nicolao did decently, a great pass ratio and 3 goals and 5 assists for that man. Once he signed for us Artur Murawski was a great buy, 3 goals and 5 assists in just 9 games. Mark Poel was our star man once again with a fantastic 6 assists, 22 goals in 38 games.